Usher now

Though he was born in Texas, Usher (aka Usher Terry Raymond IV) spent most of his childhood in Chattanooga, Tennessee. But not long after his grandmother noticed that the boy could sing, the family reloacted to Atlanta, Georgia to give Usher more chances to pursue a singing career.

Usher is now one of the top-selling artists in US history, with over 23 million sales just in America — adding to the total for 65 million worldwide.

Usher then

And here’s how super-adorable little Usher looked his school portrait, before anyone knew he was going to be a star:

After a while I really get the urge to be lazy with these and write “(X) needs no introduction” — but really, I could say that about just about everyone on this site.

For really reals though, if you are unfamiliar with Beyoncé Knowles (or just Beyoncé, since Prince made that whole one name thing cool), well, I’d like to know what rock you’ve been hiding under since 2000 or so, since I’d like to book my next vacation there. It’s obviously very peaceful and devoid of mainstream media…

… there’s no way — no way — that anyone would have imagined that the high school senior shown below would end up dating the likes of Jennifer Aniston and Jessica Simpson (among many others). Or have a chart-topping recording career.

Marshall Mathers III — eventually to be known as Eminem — started out cute enough and was pretty normal looking through his elementary school years:We really dig the plaid shirt and pullover sweater in this one: